Nintendo Could Bring VR To The Switch This Year

An article by Emily Rogers over on Nintendo World Report suggests a VR-related announcement for the Switch could arrive as early as this year. This information allegedly comes from “multiple sources” as Rogers goes onto state how a “small, select number of traditional first-party software titles” could potentially receive VR support in the “not-so-distant future.”

GoNintendo added fuel to the fire, revealing how a “very trusted source” said VR support for the Switch was, in fact, true and Nintendo Labo would be one of the first games to support it. Right now, there are no details about what this rumoured Labo kit would contain or what it would be called.

Last October, at Seattle’s Geekwire Summit, Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils- Aimé explained how Nintendo had been experimenting with VR technology but said it would need to be fun in order to get the green light:

"This is something we constantly think about, experiment with. For virtual reality, we’ve said: it’s tech that we’re looking at, but in the end it has to be fun. That’s our mission, and that is what we do arguably better than anyone else.”

While he had nothing to announce at the time, Reggie did mention how VR was a technology Nintendo would continue to experiment with in the future.

As noted by Nintendo World Report, there have been several signs Nintendo has been thinking about bringing VR to the Switch. Last August, data miners uncovered a screen-splitting “VR Mode” hidden within the Switch system firmware and in 2016 the hybrid device was reportedly delayed to enhance its VR capabilities. In the same year, the company also filed a patent application for a head-mounted display and just last month it was revealed Nintendo would be participating as an observer of a joint Japanese enterprise known as the VRM Consortium.